Long post but a view of your points jumped out at me that I tend to disagree with.
No people do not want honest analysis. They want analysis that agrees with what they already think. Most football fans who feel good about their team would probably watch an analysis that was skewed more positively towards their team and would be less likely to pay much attention to an analysis that was more honest. Confirmation bias is a very real thing.
I believe people say they are sick of propaganda but their behavior shows otherwise. It's why money is so huge in politics today. Winning an election has become more about television ads and who can spread the most propaganda. If people were truly sick of it, it wouldn't be near as effective as it is. It's really sad that it still works as well as it does.
1. Sort of. I see what you are saying, and partially agree with it, but I would just like to point out that it reaches...
Only a segment of fans, and only a segment of that particular team, thus everyone but that small segment want the truth. When I see something on say the Dolphins, I don't care if it's positive or negative, I just want it to be the truth and being a Cardinal fan doesn't make me biased towards the Dolphins or most other teams, especially those that aren't in our division, or the team we just played or about to play.
Why would anyone want lies about Manziel? About 95-98 percent of NFL fans aren't Browns fans, and not Texas A&M fans. Sure there are a bunch of casual fans that will pay attention, but I'd say in Manziel's case, I think most of the attention, is actually people wanting to see him fail, and fail hard. But ultimately it doesn't matter, because they'd rather see other stories, perhaps more of their own team.
So while I agree that people generally want to see what they think of is correct, confirmed by others, especially about their team, and hope it's even better then they thought, the fact of the matter is, when covering ANY team, or ANY player, the vast majority, like 95-98 percent, aren't inclusive of the segment that you correctly attribute that bias towards. In other words, the bias is real, but ESPN at any given time is being watched by mostly people who aren't needing their bias confirmed. Basically every story, is separate, and each story the vast majority watching have little/no bias towards it.
2. It works because so many people can't be bothered with finding out for themselves. So many people are busy trying to survive, employed or not, multiple jobs or just one, sick family members, kids, etc, etc... they want someone else to do the thinking and then summarize it.
So since we've been conditioned to trust tv and our gov't and our politicians, despite what many people know about how bad TV ads are, for many people, it's the only time they get exposed to politics, because they simply don't want to or don't have time to do it themselves.
If that's your only exposure, and you're too time limited to think for yourself, it's effective because people are looking for someone else to do their thinking for them, and the TV ads do.
It's also not a one off static state of affairs. It's a process. People are getting more in tune, so each time reality is surrendered to the fake narrative, more and more people pull away from it. We're still not there yet. Not enough people are sickened by the propaganda yet. Many haven't been bitten in the butt enough to see the consequences, or don't realize that the pain they've felt is that.
Over time this is changing, but since we live as individuals and individuals live, grow up, and die, and every day you have people who see this who die, and other people who come of age and still have to learn. So it's a long process.
Of course I fully realize there is a segment of the population who wants to be fooled, and the more hairy things get, wants the wool that's pulled over their eyes to be pulled further and further over them. I just know this is a minority even if it can be a substantial number, and that sometimes even they can change, and vice versa.
